USA! USA! USA!

National pride came out in full force today with our first World Cup match - US vs. Slovenia.  We'd heard that the traffic control/parking situation was not going smoothly, so we decided to head down to the match several hours early to deal with the shenanigans (as well as the security lines).  We encountered annoying traffic, very few directional signs, and clueless FIFA personnel about how to get to our park n' walk parking lot.  We finally made it to our high school soccer field -turned- parking lot, and then the fun began.

While Slovenians were represented at the stadium, it seemed like everyone we encountered on the mile walk over to Ellis Park stadium was wearing red, white and blue (or yellow and green for the hometeam Bafana Bafana).  Even the kids who lived along the road we walked down were waving their American flags and chanting "USA, USA, USA" as we walked by.  The many enterprising Safrican vendors attempting to sell us red-white-and-blue clown wigs and flags were definitely not selling any Slovenian -themed gear.

The outfits were pretty amazing - from American flag pants, to full Uncle Sam outfits, to Elvis, to astronauts, to colonial outfits, and above all, American flags and USA scarves being worn and waved proudly.   As we got closer to the stadium, there was a full vendor village set up outside selling various foodstuffs (boerwors?  prego roll?) and as many vuvulzelas as you could want to buy (which we decidedly don't). 

Security and ticket entry were both pretty easy.  Metal detector and requisite bag check, and then electronic turnstiles.  Then there we  were, at Ellis Park stadium, beloved in Safrican history for their 1995 rugby World Cup championship in which Nelson Mandela came out wearing a Springbok shirt to show his support for a formerly all-white team as he led Safrica towards becoming a rainbow nation.

As we got closer to the start of the game, the stands filled with their red,white & blue and green & white team gear.  The teams came onto the field for warmups, adding even more elecricity to the stadium.  Then, finally (it seemed), the teams were announced for their national anthems.   Mike would like me to mention that watching the Hawks fans scream throughout the Star Spangled Banner was more exciting than the FIFA version, but the rest of think it was pretty damn cool.  American flags waving, people singing along to "the land of the free and home of the brave", and vuvuzelas blaring at the end of the anthem (Americans and all other foreign team supporters here have loudly and enthusiastically picked up the vuvuzela tradition - in fact, I'd guess that 75% of the vuvuzelas are being blown by us tourists not Safricans).

We'll quickly gloss over the horrible first half (two goals to Slovenia??  How about a little effort there Tim Howard?) and skip to the much more exciting and better executed second half.  Donovan's early goal got the crowd back into it, and we stayed really engaged throughout the entire second half.  The place went NUTS when we scored our 3rd goal, only to have the ref disallow it for reasons we still don't understand.  While I really didn't want to tie with Slovenia, after being down 2-0 at the half, I'd take the draw in the end (esp when England couldn't beat Algeria later that night). 

Getting out of the stadium was no big deal, but getting out of the park n walk lot was a freaking nightmare.  Over an hour to leave our grassy knoll, involving us turning our car off several times when we didn't move for 10-15 minutes.  Traffic/parking control is not FIFA or Safrica's strong suit.  It's really ridiculous. 
We finally made it back up to Pretoria so we could head to a local bar for some dinner while watching England v. Algeria.  As a Brit at the table next to us, that game was "a fucking disgrace" for England.  But gives the US hope about winning our pool as long as we can beat Algeria next week (and England beats Slovenia).